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Professional Partner Program
The Professional Partner Program coordinates supports and services for youth and young adults between the ages of 3-26 years with a behavioral health needs within the 22 county area of Region 3. It utilizes the Wraparound approach by building a team dedicated to provide flexible, non-traditional and unconditional care to assist the family in meeting their needs and achieving their goals. It ensures that families have a voice and ownership in developing an accessible, comprehensive individualized support plan.
Referrals can be received by caregivers, service providers, schools or community supports.
Program contact: Jill Schubauer | 308-237-5113 Ext. 238
Youth System of Care Coordination
The Youth System of Care Coordination fosters and facilitates a collaborative environment to promote the development of multi-disciplinary services and supports to respond to the behavioral healthcare needs of youth and their families. It works with representatives of health and human services systems, the juvenile justice system, schools, providers, and community/consumer groups to conduct needs assessments, develop strategies to address service gaps and barriers, and serve as a liaison between behavioral health programs to enhance interagency coordination. It employs System of Care core values and guiding principles to improve the design and delivery of services and supports for youth and young adults with behavioral health needs.
Program contact: Jill Schubauer | 308-237-5113 Ext. 238
The program is based upon the Wraparound approach to service coordination, relying on the natural support systems of the family in their neighborhood and community. Wraparound is a model of needs driven and strengths based planning. Wraparound is an unconditional commitment to creating services that support normalized and inclusive options for consumers with complex needs and their families. The consumer and family identify individuals they want to have as members of the Wraparound Team. The Professional Partner is responsible for bringing together this team that will include family members, informal supports, community individuals, and identified service providers. The Professional Partner will utilize the referral and intake information and interview the family and Wraparound Team to develop a strengths based, needs driven, individualized Plan of Care. The Wraparound team will guide the course of action, assemble team members, facilitate plan development, monitor the interventions and assess progress of the plan. The program will assist the families in navigating the system, advocating for services, and providing support to assist them in achieving their vision, mission and goals for the future.
Utilizing the principles of wraparound, ensures that services will support the needs and well-being of the person served and their family, enhance the quality of their life, reduce their needs, build a support system in the community which they reside and improve their overall life functioning.
As of 2002, fifteen studies were identified which attempted to assess the effectiveness of the wraparound approach, two qualitative studies, nine pre-post studies, two quasi-experimental studies and two studies involving randomized clinical trials. The research base on wraparound includes the two randomized clinical trials. The results showed more favorable outcomes for the children that received wraparound. This was evidenced by a greater decline in behavioral symptoms, lower overall impairment and fewer externalizing, social problems and thought problems. Overall, the research base on Wraparound remains undeveloped in comparison to many child and family interventions, nonetheless, significant evidence supports wraparound’s effectiveness.
The Professional Partner Program combines an ecological assessment and planning approach with Wraparound to provide intensive therapeutic case management. At the center of this program is the Professional Partner, who works in full partnership with each consumer and his or her family, served in the program. The Professional Partner (1) ensures the availability of an accountable individual to serve as an advocate, service coordinator, and a liaison on behalf of the consumer and his or her family for the purpose of linking and accessing needed services and supports; (2) coordinates service components and all phases of treatment, services and support; and (3) ensures that the elements of treatment and supportive services and supports are planned for and provided.
The purpose of the PPP is to assist consumers and their families in accessing services without having to either give up their child as a ward of the state, going into undue debt to cover such services, placement in a more restrictive level of care, involvement in the juvenile justice system and/or school/job failure.
The program is a partnership between the family and consumer, Wraparound team and the Professional Partner. The program is youth guided and family driven and based on the strengths of the family/consumer not their weaknesses. The parents/consumers are an essential and integral part of the Wraparound team and act as equal partners and experts on knowing their needs best. An individualized Plan of Care is developed for each consumer and his or her family and based upon the strengths and needs of the consumer and family across the life domains and is focused on normalization to ensure that the basic needs of all persons of like age, sex, culture etc. are met.
The purpose of the Professional Partner Program is to assist youth and young adults, between the ages of 3 and 26, with behavioral health needs and their families access needed services in or near the community in which they live. The Professional Partner Program utilizes the Wraparound Approach to identify, access and utilize services and support to meet the youth, young adult and their family’s needs by building a team dedicated to provide flexible, nontraditional and unconditional care. This team consist of individuals who know the youth, young adult and family best and are willing to work to help them have a better life. The Professional Partner Program is consists of four subprograms that are tailored to best meet the needs of youth and young adults in the Region 3 service area: Traditional Professional Partner Program, Transitional Professional Partner Program, Coop for SUCCESS and School Based Professional Partner Program.
The Professional Partner Program consists of the following components:
Our mission is to utilize the wraparound approach to coordinate supports and services in the community for youth and young adults with behavioral needs and to ensure that families and young adults have a voice and ownership in developing an accessible, comprehensive individualized support plan.
The program is strength based, embraces a family centered philosophy and acknowledges consumers and families as equal partners. It promotes utilization of the least restrictive, least intrusive developmentally appropriate interventions in accordance with the strengths and needs of the consumer and family within the most normalized environment.
It utilizes specific methods for moving toward an interagency system of care by developing referral sources, collaborative working relationships, and integration and coordination with families and public and private child serving systems. The mix, intensity, duration and location of services and supports are individually tailored to meet the unique needs of each consumer and his or her family.
The program also holds the belief that as the needs become more complex, the interventions, services and supports consumers and families receive will become more individualized. Services and supports are culturally competent and tailored to the unique values and cultural needs of the consumer, family and the culture that they identify with.
An unconditional commitment to continually readjust the service design and delivery to find whatever it is that is needed to help the child and his or her family experience a better life. The commitment is to unconditional care. When things do not go well, the child and family are not “kicked out”, but rather, the individualized services and supports are changed.
A significant activity that lead to the development of the Professional Partner Program was the Governor’s Children’s Mental Health Search Conference held in the summer of 1994. The Search Conference was convened to identify strategies to build an integrated system that promotes the provision of high quality, seamless mental health services for consumer and their families throughout Nebraska. From this conference evolved the identification of the following key components: (1) a clear point of access to services 24 hours a day, seven days a week; (2) a professional partner to assist families to navigate the complicated system of care; (3) a single, coordinated assessment addressing multiple agency requirements; and (4) flexible funding designed to avoid specific rigid service categories that fail to address unique concerns of an individual family’s situation. The Professional Partner Program was developed around these concepts.
The initial appropriation in 1995 for the Professional Partner Program targeted children and adolescents with serious emotional disorders who were not Medicaid eligible, wards of the state or formally involved in the Office of Juvenile Services. The intent was to provide the opportunity for families to access needed services without making their child a ward of the state or going into undo debt. Region 3 hired the first Professional Partner in October, 1995 and began serving consumer in late December, 1995.
The Nebraska Legislature appropriated additional funds in 1997 to enhance the public behavioral health system across Nebraska. The Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Health and Well¬ Being (now known as the Division of Behavioral Health) utilized a portion of these funds to expand the Professional Partner Program in capacity and scope of those eligible for the program.
Beginning in July, 1997 the Region 3 Professional Partner Program began to serve, in addition to the initial population, children who are Medicaid eligible, wards of the state and/or formally involved in the juvenile justice system.
On October 1, 1997, Region 3 Behavioral Health Services in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Health and Well Being was awarded a multimillion dollar five year grant to enhance the mental health system for families in Central Nebraska. This allowed Region 3 to dramatically expand the program’s capacity. Congress later extended this grant to a six year period.
On May 16, 2009, Governor Heineman, signed into law LB 603. The bill provides additional services, support and professional resources to help Nebraska families dealing with children’s behavioral health issues, address the behavioral healthcare workforce shortage, and expand the array of behavioral health services eligible for Medicaid match. The bill helps address the gap in services for children with behavioral health issues by providing services and expertise to support children and their families. The bill provides additional funding for behavioral health services for children under the Nebraska Behavioral Health Services Act, including, but not limited to, the expansion of the Professional Partner Program and services provided using a sliding-fee schedule.
The program serves children, youth and young adults that are experiencing behavioral health challenges, in coordination with their family or caregiver.
The Professional Partner Program (PPP) will not exclude from admission any otherwise eligible person on the basis of ability to pay, previous admission record, marital status, race, color, national origin, religion, or disability.
Wraparound is a family driven, strength-based, solution focused planning and problem solving process with the family or young adult and their team. It is individualized, which means that every youth, young adult and/or family develops a unique plan that fits them and their culture, beliefs and values. Wraparound helps families achieve important changes by helping them meet their unmet needs.
A Wraparound Team is developed with each consumer and family served in the program. The consumer and family identify those individuals they desire to participate on the team. The Wraparound Team generally consists of four to ten members that know the family best and are willing to work to help the consumer and family achieve their goals.
The Wraparound Team develops the Individualized Plan of Care by utilizing the wraparound process. The team supports the implementation of the plan of care and unconditional commitment to the consumer and family. The Team also identifies and connects to informal supports that will be important to the success of the family after formal services end.
Utilizes the Wraparound Approach to serve families in all 22 counties of Region 3 that have children and young adults ages 3-26 who have a behavioral health disorder and are at-risk of failure in the home, school, and/or community.
Eligibility Criteria:
Referral Forms
English PPP form | Spanish PPP form
Utilizes the Wraparound Approach to serve young adults with a behavioral health disorder, between the ages of 15-21 who have unmet vocational, school and behavioral health needs. The COOP for SUCCESS is a unique collaboration between Region 3 Behavioral Health Services, Goodwill Industries of Greater Nebraska, Vocational Rehabilitation of Nebraska and Grand Island Public Schools.
Eligibility Criteria:
Referral Forms
English PPP form | Spanish PPP form
Utilizes the Wraparound Approach to serve youth with a behavioral health disorder, between the ages of 5-21 who have unmet educational and behavioral health needs. The School Based Wraparound Program is a unique collaboration between Region 3 Behavioral Health Services and Grand Island Public Schools.
Eligibility Criteria:
Referral Forms
English PPP form | Spanish PPP form
Utilizes the Transition to Independence Model and the Wraparound Approach to serve young adults in all 22 counties of Region 3 with a mental health diagnosis between the ages of 16-26 who need additional supports and services to successfully transition into independence.
Meets financial eligibility criteria
Referral Forms
English PPP form | Spanish PPP form
For more information, contact:
Jill Schubauer
308-237-5113 Ext. 238
jschubauer@region3.net
helps:Region 3 Behavioral Health Services is funded 4.1% or $495,089 by the Block Grants for Community Mental Health Services, CFDA Number 93.958, 8.3% or $1,009,720 by the Block Grants for Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse, CFDA Number 93.959, 0.7% or $83,351 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance, CFDA Number 93.243, 1.6% or $193,252 by the Opioid STR, CFDA Number 93.788, all from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, contracted through the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Behavioral Health, 0.7% by the Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Grants through the Department of Justice. Additionally 78.7% or $9,568,878 of Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Health and 0.5% of Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, 5.4% or $650,971 of County funding is supporting the project.
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